Bumi

"Appa went to find Bumi, Dad," Tenzin told his father this morning. He will be happy to see his brother, just as he was with Kya.

But they will want him to talk and now is not the time.

Tenzin is in his father's office, returning letters and keeping up appearances while his heart falls to pieces. Some of the acolytes notice, when he hears their daily business the way his father normally would. Some don't, and he likes that better. He'd prefer to hide.

Katara practically lives in Aang's sickroom now, easing any pain - though his father swears there isn't any (physically). When the morning's duties are discharged, Tenzin silently walks into the kitchens to make a small tray for his parents and take it to the door.

"Tenzin, I can hear you, son." From inside the room.

"Yes, Mother." And he opens the door, leaving the tray on a side table just inside the entrance way, and he takes a habitual position kneeling on a cushion at the foot of his father's bed.

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Long before she was a healer, Katara had been learning to mend things that she knew, in her heart, were irreparable. That even when things couldn't be fixed, when there were no second chances, there was still always something left to offer. Waterbending gives her the clarity to not only sense, but know the difference: when she can put things right, when she can ebb the damage, and when she can only ease the inevitable.

It allows her to act as she needs to. But it doesn't really help.

She doesn't look up when her son enters the room, apparently preoccupied as a thread of water glimmers blue beneath her hands, illuminating her face as she directs it along her husband's chest, and over his heart. Though focused, her eyes are barely open, and her mouth is set. Katara maintains the movement over Aang's heart for a moment, then only allows herself to exhale slightly as she pulls the water back into the basin on the floor next to her, and turns to look to the tray.

Quietly, "Thank you, Tenzin."

From:

12goingon113

Aang's breathing, once labored by comparison, now eases and his body stills as he continues to sleep.

The ice that had long protected him from the storms of the southern sea as well as the rages of both Ozai and Azulon, has taken its toll on his body. Humans are delicate beings when it comes right down to it, and the Avatar is only human.

In the past few days Aang has found it harder and harder to distinguish the Real world from that of the Spirit. Half sleeping he can often be heard whispering to his past lives as they prepare for his arrival. Upon waking he has no recollection of what had transpired.

Edited Date: 2012-08-18 02:20 pm (UTC)

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For someone so practiced at stillness, this is a time when all Tenzin wants is to move - or blow away.

"How is he faring?" Tenzin whispers to his mother, already speaking as though Aang isn't there.

(Because he isn't. Not really.)

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Katara, on the other hand, is feeling heavy as a stone. She's not sure she could move, if she wanted to.

She looks to her son, and then back to Aang. Her hands rise again, but for now, the water stays in the basin.

"I think he's resting easier," she answers.

"But some of it is beyond my power."

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"I could -- " which drifts off.

"The next time he wakes, I could stay with him. Help as much as I can. Perhaps I can -- " I don't know! " -- think of something. I suppose.

"Would you care to eat, Mother?"

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"Of - of course, son."

Like the first word, her hands hesitate in the air, and it's a moment before she looks up again. It's not Tenzin she's hesitant about, though she know that must be how it looks, and she silently chides herself for it.

Still, Katara takes the time to be absolutely certain there is nothing more she can do in this moment, before she looks back to Tenzin.

She gives her son a small, obligatory smile that doesn't reach her eyes, but answers, "As a matter of fact, I would."

(She's not actually hungry, but also not entirely sure of when she'd eaten last. It wouldn't do to starve herself.)

Edited Date: 2012-08-21 04:17 pm (UTC)

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Tenzin stands again in order to retrieve the food he'd brought in earlier.

It's all rote - movement and coming back to sit alongside his mother, fidgeting with utensils and placing a bowl at her right hand.

But silence can get to be too much, even for a monk of the Air Temple Island.

"This is wrong." All of it.

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Katara could say that it was natural. Meant to be. That in some ways, every moment they'd had with Aang had been on borrowed time.

She doesn't.

She lifts the bowl, and looks sideways at Tenzin, as though inviting him to continue if he wishes to.

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"He saved everyone," Tenzin returns simply. Because it's true. Even for those who hadn't been born during the reign of Ozai, they had a world to be born into because of Avatar Aang.

"This all just feels like he's been cheated."

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Gently, "You make me feel childish, Tenzin.

"I just want to make him stay here with me."

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"Oh, Mom.

"That's all I want too."

Stay for his mom.

Stay for him.

Just stay. Don't make me be the last one, Dad.

Edited Date: 2012-08-25 03:42 pm (UTC)

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The trip seems longer than it should be, and Bumi isn't sure if it's his own anxiety making it appear that way, or if it's Appa moving slower than usual.

Probably a combination of both, he thinks to himself, as he gives the Sky Bison a loving pat on the head.

"Just like old times, eh boy? You coming to get me." Appa grunts noncommittally.

So many old times.
To say that Bumi made a habit of storming off in an effort to "run away" would be a sizable understatement. No matter the circumstances that prompted his attempted escape, his return home was always the same.

Once the fire of his anger had died down, and the uncertainty of best laid plans had set in, Appa would descend from the sky to take him home. Upon his return any apologies that needed to be made were dispensed with and life continued on in relative peace until the next time.

For years Bumi joked that by joining the United Forces he'd finally found a means to successfully run away from home, but as he watches as the sun rise from behind the distant mountains that surround Republic City, he comes to realize that maybe he wasn't so successful after all. That once again, and for one final time, Appa has appeared out of no where to carry him home.

Appa is tired after flying all night, and his landing isn't quite as graceful as it could be, which is really no matter because so few Acolytes are out in the courtyard at this hour of the morning.

There is however a woman in Northern Watertribe dress waiting for Bumi when he dismounts.

"it's been far too long," she whispers to him as they embrace.

"and under better circumstances if my memory serves."

Kya pulls back to look at him. "You've heard?"

"I figured." His voice is low, but doesn't waver. Not for a second.

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Tenzin is in his office again when an acolyte reports that Commander Bumi has arrived.

Several minutes later, Tenzin is walking out of the main temple building to find his siblings.

"Bumi," is all that happens at first in the way of greeting.

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Bumi is still holding his sister's hand when he turns to address his brother. "Tenzin," he responds in kind.

He's watching you, Tenzin. Looking for the whole story, or at very least the part of it that Kya may have left out or glossed over in her way.

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There's a part of her that wants to apologize. Say that she knows Aang had never meant to impart such a burden onto anyone else, let alone his son.

But she doesn't think she can share such thoughts and hold herself together. So the words remain unspoken. Katara makes herself eat, instead.

Eventually, she pauses, her eyes on her husband once more.

"But I -"

She puts down the bowl. "- I hope you don't think of him as leaving you."

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Tenzin at his most official holds a poker face pretty well.

Right now, he might as well be as expressionless as Monk Gyatso's shrine in the northern outbuilding.

"I can take you to Mother and Father now, or if you want to take a moment to yourself after flying so far -- "

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"But he is."

Quickly added: "No more so than you or I or Kya or Bumi, but he is."

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"Oh, Tenzin..."

It was the same, old fear. The one he'd confided to her when they were children sitting around a campfire while a storm raged beyond them. After they'd been forced to flee Ba Sing Se. That he'd run away. He'd left.

My people needed me, and I wasn't there to help.

So Katara doesn't say it to chide her son, or rebuke him. She says it because she has to.

"You can't know how hard he fought to be here at all."

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"That will be unnecessary. They've seen me far worse for wear than a touch sleep deprived and dashingly windblown."

He sees your poker face, Tenzin and raises.
Bumi turns towards their sister, silently inviting her along as well.

"I'm tending to mother's morning duties," she says giving Bumi's hand a squeeze. "When those are finished I'll join you. It's good to see you Bumi."

"You say that now," he says before bringing her hand up for a kiss.

Bumi lifts his bag from the ground, and once again slings it over one shoulder.

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"Mom." And it barely even makes it out of his mouth.

"I should not even...this isn't the time."

Aang stirs lightly in the bed, and Tenzin's eyes shoot back to him - who should be the focus of this. Not Tenzin. It's always the Avatar.

"I am doing what I know to do."

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Tenzin smiles at Kya's back as she leaves as though he meant to while she could still see him, but forgot.

"He probably is not awake right now, but Mother is with him. She will be happy to see you."

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It's a nice effort, albeit it late, Tenzin.

"That's all right, we had a nice talk on the flight in," says Bumi with a nod in Appa's direction. He gestures for Tenzin to lead on. "How's Mom?"

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"She is doing as much as she can, but rarely leaves Dad's side.

"I try to make sure she eats."

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